Chapter 2

After a lot of deliberation, a scroll was sent out to Konoha with the idea of an alliance as well as a list of the requirements for the said alliance. The fact that Kumo actually sent this sort of document out so proudly and directly shocked the ninja world and both Ohnoki and Rasa began sweating at the thought of the two strongest villages working together against them.

If that alliance indeed happened then they would most certainly lose this war, and if they had to lose the war anyway then they might as well stop it when they had the chance. A war between villages was never about emotions or honor, it was about benefits.

Ohnoki and Rasa understood that, if the alliance did happen, then even if they won, their victory would be a tragic one and not worth their gains. No one who obtains the position of Kage is stupid, so both could only wait to know what the results of the negotiation would be exactly.

On Konoha's side, Hiruzen, the elders, and all clan heads sat together as they read over the scroll.

"This, is Cloud trying to suck us dry?" Hiashi asks in anger as they finished reading the list of materials that cloud was requesting. This list of demands was at least half of what would be demanded if they were to lose a war.

Such costs would setback Konoha's own war efforts considerably, and that was saying nothing of what sort of message would be shown if Konoha was to give out so much to Cloud just like that. They would look weak, and such a look would make investors not as interested in using them for their missions, which again would be ruinous for the village. Just the humiliation of taking such a deal, which would look no different from surrendering without a fight, made the Hyuga clan head feel great anger.

"... What do you think, Shikaku?" Hiruzen asks and the head of the Nara clan looks pensive for a bit before scratching the back of his head.

"How troublesome." Shikaku said before looking serious at Hiruzen and speaking. "From what I see, Kumo is trying to fish in troubled waters, take advantage of our bad spot to force us to cough up some materials as they fight with Stone to expand their territory. They are demanding payment for what they would likely do regardless, but that still raises options for us that are broadly bad either way. If we take the deal, the long-term problems we would be facing are quite big, even if we win the war we would not gain much as we would have to share the spoils of war with Kumo and would already have spent a lot of resources for the war and the alliance, the gains are very few. As for what would happen if we say no, we would then have to face Kumo who is about as strong as us, the fight would get very desperate and the chance of us losing would increase considerably. Personally, I would say we try to talk terms with Kumo and not simply accept these terms, find some way to lower the requirements for this alliance to an acceptable level."

Hiruzen nodded, feeling it might be a suitable choice.

"Then the negotiation will be left to this old man." Danzo said quickly and without preamble. "The location for the discussion of the treaty would be in the land of hot springs, as mentioned in the scroll. Now that Sand and stone Shinobi are pressing so urgently, the war is worsening quickly. Hiruzen, you can't leave the village casually but this old man can and, as an elder, I have the right to speak for the village in such meetings."

The clan heads wanted to deny this, but they held their tongues since the Hokage was known for favoring his old friends and, while they did not trust Danzo to do a good job, they knew that Hiruzen would put any blame for the materials spent on the clan head sent.

No one wanted that sort of thankless job, so Danzo was allowed to go to the meeting place by the rest. Danzo showed the smallest shadow of a smile after obtaining this responsibility as maybe he could get Kumo to help him obtain the seal of Hokage. It was just a thought, but he figured that he could use Kumo to at least get rid of some enemies he has and help pave the way for the position he considered as righteously his.

As for Hiruzen, although he was dissatisfied that Danzo made his own decision and exceeded his authority, Sarutobi Hiruzen was also quite a bit helpless on how to deal with it. Now there are still a group of people from other countries staring at Konoha. He really can't leave the village for any such meeting. Hiruzen still remembers how his teacher died in similar circumstances of going for a meeting like this one, as such Hiruzen would not risk himself at this time in such a meeting.

And so time rolled along and soon three weeks passed and the two sides finally approached the meeting spot. Max and Ay, the candidates for fourth and fifth Raikage, both cases which showed their focus on this mission.

The two sides finally met in the country of hot springs. This was ultimately not a secret meeting and both sides knew it. Max knew that, as soon as he or his father moved, the spies from other villages would pass the news back. There are several such spies in Kumo, not that Max particularly went out of his way to ever kill them. Even if he killed them all, soon enough others would relace the dead spies.

Though, even if the information was sent as soon as the groups moved, there is a delay in information due to lacking technology. Whether it is Cloud Shinobi or Konoha, there is no intention to conceal their actions in the slightest. Konoha is already in the worst situation due to a war on two, perhaps three fronts, so it has already thrown such caution to the wind is not afraid at all.

As for Cloud, they never once cared about hiding as they were just that confident and went to the meeting without any sign of hiding their movements. With Max's senses, he could detect the moment the enemy tried to approach their group so, even if the other vilages knew it, he was not afraid no matter how many enemies try to face them.

Reaching the agreed location the two groups look warily at each other before Danzo steps forward and looked straight at Ay.

"You must be A of the AB combo. My name is Shimura Danzo, representative and elder of Konoha."

"So? Did you come over to accept our terms or not?" A questioned, not an ounce of care or respect towards Danzo in his tone.

"Your Excellency future fourth Raikage, I have basically understood your village's plan. Your main goal is not Konoha. The reason for your alliance with Konoha is to get extra benefits from Konoha from winning this war. Anyone can tell that both our villages together can sweep through the other three villages rather easily, so with minimal effort, you would be able to get a sum of resources from the defeated countries, while if you help defeat Konoha you would have to share the spoils with the rest which would be much lesser in comparison. We of Konoha are not fools and saw through all your plans."

Danzo felt that he had mastered Kumo's careful thoughts, so he simply said it directly. He said so because his own personal objective was not necessarily the alliance between the two nations. That alliance was only part of the goal Danzo had set for himself. His main goal was to obtain Cloud Shinobi's support in dealing with some inconveniences in the village that stood in his way to becoming hokag... that were in the way of the greater good of Konoha!

As the (self-entitled) best person to be Hokage to ever have lived in this world and the one destined to unify the entire ninja world, Danzo could not be stupid (in his own opinion at least, hindsight is 20/20).

As for Ay, he was not fully sure regarding what to do exactly since he was not the best in negotiations and preferred to simply bully the other side in compliance, so Max spoke up.

"So? Does the fact of our plans being obvious change anything to Konoha?"

Danzo frowned before speaking slowly.

"We cannot agree to give that many resources. We could give you some Jutsu we have instead, four A Rank Ninjutsu scrolls, ten B Rank Ninjutsu Scrolls, and thirty C Rank as well as thirty percent of what you requested."

"Not enough." Max said, shaking his head in the negative. "While the Ninjutsu scrolls are a good replacement, we will need at least two S Rank Ninjutsu Scrolls, fifty percent of what we requested, and a favor."

"Favor?"

"Simple, we want you to look the other way when we attack an ally of yours, the Taki Village."

Danzo looks pensive before narrowing his eyes.

"The seven tails Jinchuuriki, I presume."

"Yes." Max said without any issue. "We will attack that village, loot it, and take away their Jinchuuriki. We want Konoha to look the other way when we do it. In exchange, you can offer 'help' afterward and use Taki as a front for Root to have its own territory to do as you please."

Danzo looks not convinced as, if he wanted, he could take down such a measly village easily enough so he had no true need to go through the trouble.

"And why should Konoha allow Kumo to grow stronger?"

"Because this is the most beneficial for you. If we fight with Taki then Kumo will be the one to take any damage from the fighting, letting your Root intact. Not only that, while it is true that this village is between two nations, Taki is also able to produce Hero Water which can enhance your Jonin temporarily to Kage level in exchange for them dying soon after."

Danzo's head seemed to turn in his head as he thought of how such water could make his personal Ambu who knows how many times stronger. If he could digest Taki then he could become Hokage for sure, so he felt that letting Kumo obtain one more Jinchuuriki was not that big a problem anyway.

"... I agree on one condition as well." Danzo said. "As for the supplies this time, I can help Kumo to get all of them. However, in the future, you must cooperate with me during this war to get some minor objectives of mine fulfilled."

Danzo's greed and ambition were ignited and he decided to personally take out the jutsus and thirty percent of the costs of this alliance. The material costs would trouble him slightly, but he has been discreetly siphoning the resources of Konoha to Root for over two decades now and he could use that money if that was what it took.

As long as he paid personally by that percentage then no one would have to know and he could say he lowered the demanded price of Kumo to 70% of what they originally wanted, a good merit for Konoha war effort.

Max barely even thought about the request of Danzo and before he agreed Ay spoke up.

"We will only help as long as this help does not negatively impact our own war effort. We will not send our Shinobi to die only for the benefit of outsiders."

Danzo nodded without much care before signaling for one of his ninjas to step forward.

"This is one of my personal ninjas, she will accompany you and serve as a relay point between our two sides."

As Danzo said so he gave her a sign and the Kunoichi removed her mask, making Max's expression to become slightly funny before he returned to normal. Danzo noted it and thought having this woman serve as a honey trap as originally intended might really be a good strategy. Ay, on the side, almost felt like slapping this horny dog of a son on the back of the head as to stop him from only ever thinking with his lower head.

But in truth, Max did not care about their reaction as he cared much more about who exactly Danzo was giving over to him and what she represented. She was a young woman with shoulder-length light brown hair and emerald green eyes, she had a very gentle expression on her face and while nowhere near as explosive as Mabui or Samui, the woman's body was fit and curvy enough.

Nono Yakushi, the mother figure of Kabuto and the one whose death truly broke Kabuto's mind entirely. She was a medical jonin with considerable skill and all that jazz, but her relation with Kabuto was the most important. As long as she was used well Kabuto could be pulled in on Kumo's side rather easily, and Kabuto was without a doubt a person who had one of the highest research talents in this entire world.

After an agreement was struck Danzo called Nono over to talk with her something secretly for a bit before sending her with the Kumo's team.

The travel from there to Kumo was rather fast afterward. It only took about five days until they reached Kumo to say the terms. The Raikage was rather pleased that they could just up and attack Taki directly without Konoha intervening as well as glad that they would get all those materials and jutsus from Konoha so promptly.

"Gramps, can I go fight Taki?" Max said while sitting in the comfortable chair in front of the third Raikage.

"We will be deploying the army to face the Stone Village next. We can't afford to strike at Taki right away as it would not look good for us to do that, we need to plan beforehand and-"

"Fine, all that boring stuff. If I won't be having any fight next I will go to practice a bit, maybe see if I can develop some ninjutsu or something." Max said as he teleported away, causing the Third Raikage to sigh at this unruly grandson. The boy was as scheming as they come and was smart, but he was also undoubtedly a lecher and whimsical.

"... Maybe I should train Darui to be the fifth after all." The third Raikage said with annoyance. Darui's potential and talent were much weaker than Max, but he was more stable and serious about the position. If he trains Darui then he can at least have the boy help Max later on in the future.

Truly, while Konoha was a political mess in several ways, Kumo was another matter entirely as they were much more practical and focused on improving the village and its military instead of everyone trying to climb over each other.

The Raikage looked over the document and had to wonder what Danzo would request of them in the future during the war.

"Oh well, considering the man's way of doing things we can just do what he asks since Danzo will only make Konoha weaker anyway." The Raikage said with a shrug, used to Danzo's way of doing things and how the man would constantly aim at Konoha shinobi that were in his way to being Hokage, which means anyone strong enough in Konoha.

Truly, a great hero of the ninja world, making sure that Konoha was never too strong. Praiseworthy, truly.

///---///

"Come now, you can do it." Max said with a big smile as he faced his current two waifus. Samui had a sword in hand which was covered by dark energy while Mabui stood a bit further back, electricity covering her form in a way reminiscent of the thunder armor, but different all the same.

Let no one say that Max was not generous with his waifus. Not even a day after having bound them he made sure to give each of them a unique boost besides raising them to the base Kage level (limited by their age at the time to only high Jonin).

To Samui, who liked swordsmanship and fighting head-on, Max bought her the template stacking 0 for Armament Haki and Shinigami Zampakuto, and, since she had it for around four years now, she was skilled enough to cover her weapons or herself with haki, greatly increasing her survivability and attack power, while she had still yet to unlock her Shikai, much less a Bankai. With her now being 15 and no longer handicapped by her age limitation she was now a decent fighter amongst the Kage level and would only grow from there.

As for Mabui, since she had a good affinity with the lightning release but no skills or talent to speak off about regarding hand-to-hand combat, he directly bought her the Lightning Devil Fruit template. Needless to say, she was a true powerhouse that was only inconvenienced by her lacking stamina which she was working on for a while now.

As for Max, he was all but playing around with the two as both tried their best against him during this sparing match.

Samui moved first, her speed being extremely fast as she used her chakra to enhance her speed as she dashed. Her sword cut right towards Max's neck who moved his torso back just in time to avoid her strike, not being deterred for a moment he used the chance to launch a kick at her torso. which hit her but did not affect her all that much besides pushing her back a bit due to the haki she used on the said torso. Not carrying about such minor issues she pushed forward by striking once more, this time however she was assisted by Mabui who launched lightning all around and made it so that Max could not evade Samui's strike.

BOOM

As her sword hit Max he had no choice but to go all out with his thunder armor and the chakra chains as he crossed his arms to stop that blade. As the blade struck Max was pushed down and the ground around him cracked from the force of impact.

Samui may not be particularly fast amongst Kage level, nor was she any good with any truly unique Jutsu, but what she was good at was swordsmanship, haki, and her own body strength which she trained constantly and was highly praised due to the shared Body and Martial Talents. Max gave a slightly strained smile before her sword pressed him further and her cutting him, only for him to disappear in a puff of smoke since he was ultimately a shadow clone.

Mabui, thanks to the electricity around her, could sense her surroundings somewhat and that let her react in time as a large ball of magma descended on her spot.

"It seems your senses are getting sharper, Mabui." Max said as he descended from the sky. This was a nifty little trick that Max had developed a while back based on Doflamingo's string control to fly but, unlike Doflamingo, Max pushed several thin strings of chakra on the ground and used them to lift himself high up and move through the air in a limited fashion. It was slightly troublesome to use it, but just the ability to stay airborne could give several advantages for a shinobi.

Mabui did not care much about his praises at the moment, using her lightning form to fly up in the air and try to launch a strike from up close, only for Max to avoid it by using his short-distance teleportation to move behind her. His hands moved fast as he used Magma Release on Mabui who moved away as to avoid the strike and counter him.

The two soon started a game of hide and seek as Max used his sensing ability and short teleportation to dodge and attack while Mabui used her super speed to dodge and attack as well. This continued for a while as Samui waited for them to come down and complained a bit about the fact those two stayed airborne through different methods while she was stuck in the ground.

Thankfully, it did not take too long before Mabui could no longer hold on as her stamina depleted and Max managed to take a pot shot at her, using magma style to imprison her in a mud-like substance that countered her lightning body.

Coming down to the ground Max used his teleportation to try and attack Samui from the back, but she dodged it and went to slash him once more, causing him to evade. However this time her slash was accompanied by chakra which extended her sword reach at the last second, causing a scratch on Max's torso. Blood barely started to leave him when the wound closed back up, showing how BS his vitality is.

Their fight continued on and, in the distance, a loli of nine years old watched on as the two sides kept on fighting, her eyes sparkling as she observed the fight going on.

"Matatabi, can I do those things too?" Little Yugito questions the companion inside her who was snoring loudly. Frowning, Yugito spoke the same thing again, this time louder and causing the two tails bijuu to wake up.

"What does a cat has to do to sleep here?" Matatabi complained, regretting again about actually becoming friends with her human.

And yes, like all cats she fully believed that she was the owner here and not the other way around.

"You sleep too much. When can you help me be amazing like them?" Yugito asks and Matatabi shrugs.

"When you are old enough to handle my energy. Right now if we tried we would only cause damage to you, and I like my bed here so I don't want to see you die, got it?"

Yugito pouted and Matatabi just decided to consider this as her win as she watched as Mabui and Samui tried their best against Max who was taking them both on without issue.

Young Yugito loved to watch those three who were like family to her. When some of the people of the village shunned and avoided her for being a Jinchuuriki, those three stuck by her and would help her in whatever she needed. They were her favorite older brother and older sisters, so as they approached her after the spar, her expression being as bad as it was could only be seen as weird... if one did not know the context.

Max sighed seeing her expression.

"Are you still mad over staying behind?"

"Of course I am." Yugito said with a pout. "You guys can go on your amazing ninja adventures and join a war for the sake of Kumo, meanwhile I have to stay here with grampa Raikage and hear him grumbling about not being sent to the frontlines."

"Would it help to know that I will be staying behind as well?" Mabui asks, making Nagito perk up at that.

"Really?"

Hearing the tone of hope over not having to stay behind alone, Mabui gave Yugito a kind smile and said.

"It seems so. My Tenso No Jutsu is just far too useful to send supplies and, if needed, the Third Raikage to the frontlines. With me being able to send supplies directly from the village the supply routes for our forces are much simpler to establish so keeping me here is a good idea."

Yugito smiled upon knowing that one of her older sister figures would be staying behind. Meanwhile, Samui smiled at Mabui and spoke.

"Don't worry, I will keep it cool and maintain an eye on Max so he doesn't go out galavanting and doing something particularly stupid or being taken advantage of by some Konoha harlot."

Putting an arm over Samui's waist, Max pulled her over as he gave her a lecherous smile.

"And I will be keeping an eye on you,"

Samui did not say anything against the idea, only blushed slightly as Mabui frowned.

"Do not get her pregnant while in the war, Samui is one of our war potentials so losing her to pregnancy would not be good." Mabui said, always the pragmatist.

She really was the one who, on CANON, could grow to be the secretary of the Raikage. She could stop others from doing stupid shit before they even started, which was the most important duty of a Raikage Secretary.

Seeing Max put his hand away and pout and Mabui ruining his fun, little Yugito giggled making him turn his attention to her and run after the jinchuuriki who could only escape with all her skills before she was caught by the devilish claws of her older brother figure and went through a terrible experience.

Tickle torture until she cried.